Spinless mirror Chern insulator from projective symmetry algebra

It was commonly believed that a mirror Chern insulator (MCI) must require spin-orbital coupling, since time-reversal symmetry for spinless systems contradicts with the mirror Chern number. So MCI cannot be realized in spinless systems, which include the large field of topological artificial crystals. Here, we disprove this common belief. The first point to clarify is that the fundamental constraint is not from spin-orbital coupling but the symmetry algebra of time-reversal and mirror operations. Then, our theory is based on the conceptual transformation that the symmetry algebras will be projectively modified under gauge fields. Particularly, we show that the symmetry algebra of mirror reflection and time reversal required for MCI can be achieved projectively in spinless systems with lattice Z(2) gauge fields, i.e., by allowing real hopping amplitudes to take +/- signs. Moreover, we propose the basic structure, the twisted pi-flux blocks, to fulfill the projective symmetry algebra, and develop a general approach to construct spinless MCIs based on these building blocks. Two concrete spinless MCI models are presented, which can be readily realized in artificial systems such as acoustic crystals.